1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to needle stock holders and, more particularly, to needle holders that are used to manufacture surgical needles.
2. Background of Related Art
Processes and equipment for manufacturing surgical needles are well known in the art. Conventionally, wire on spools is straightened and cut into needle blanks. The needle blanks are then subjected to a series of conventional grinding, forming, shaping and drilling steps to form surgical needles having distal piercing points and proximal suture mounting ends. The distal ends of the needles may be either of the taper point type or the cutting edge type. The suture mounting end may have a formed channel or a drilled hole. The needles may have piercing points that are sharp or blunt and the body of the needles may be straight or curved.
Straight needles are typically used to suture easily accessible tissue that can be manipulated directly by hand. The straight-body needle is also useful in microsurgery for nerve and vessel repair. Examples of straight-body needles include the Keith needle, which is a straight cutting needle used for skin closure of abdominal wounds, and the Bunnell needle, which is used for tendon/GI tract repair.
Curved needles offer a predictable path through tissue and require less space for maneuvering than a straight needle. The semicircular path is the optimal course for sutures through tissue and provides an even distribution of tension. Common body curvature of the needle is a quarter-inch, three-eighths-inch, half-inch, or five-eighths-inch circle. The three-eighths-inch circle is used most commonly for skin closure. The half-inch circle was designed for confined spaces, and more manipulation by the surgeon is required (i.e., increased wrist motion is required). Additionally, curved needles are also specifically designed for ophthalmic surgery.
Most surgical needles are typically made one at a time. However, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the precision quality of very small needles, e.g. needles used in microscopic surgery, such as ophthalmic needles. Each needle must be cut, formed and sharpened, in order to yield uniform surgical needles.
It is typically required that conventional surgical needles have a smooth surface free from burrs, protrusions, machining marks, and other known surface irregularities. Such protrusions or surface irregularities may result from the needle manufacturing process and should be removed from the needle in order to have a needle with a smooth surface. This smooth surface provides minimal tissue drag and decreased tissue trauma. A variety of methods for providing needles free from protrusions and surface irregularities are known in the art and a particularly useful method involves electropolishing. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,762,811 and 5,693,454 owned by Tyco Healthcare of Mansfield, Mass.
Although the electropolishing processes of the prior art for surgical needles are adequate, there are certain disadvantages attendant with their use. Most conventional electropolishing processes are batch processes. Wherein, mechanical damage may result from the needles coming into contact with each other during handling and processing. Also, during the batch electropolishing processes excess metal is removed from the needle and the metal removal rate is highly variable and not specific to a certain part of the needle such as the tip, body or mounting end. In these processes it is difficult to polish specific sections of a needle without polishing the entire needle. Another disadvantage is that the needles may experience different removal rates depending on their location within the bath with respect to the electrodes and with respect to the other needles.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a device for holding needles in a position separate from each other while they are manufactured. Further, it is desirable to have a device for holding needles that maintains the needles horizontally aligned in the same plane so that each of the specific needle parts can be exposed to a certain step of the manufacturing process for the same length of time and/or for the same portions of the needle.